techDaily.info :: Auto Airbags Get Animated with Hi-Tech

Friday, January 09, 2009

Auto Airbags Get Animated with Hi-Tech

Posted: 12/19/2001

Posted By:	A&S Animation, Inc		Contact:	Mark Simon
Phone:	407-370-2673		Email:	msimon@cfl.rr.com

Press Release

Auto Airbags Get Animated with Hi-Tech

A&S Animation, Inc. is showing the world how airbags work in their own animated way. The Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, ACTS, hired Washington D.C. production firm Washington Independent Productions, Inc. to create and produce a video describing how airbags function and how consumers should safely use them. Washington Independent Productions hired A&S Animation to produce the lead animated character, Delta V.

The concept for the video, titled Airbags: Today and Tomorrow, was created by Susan Stolov at Washington Independent Productions, who also wrote the script. Susan created a fun character called Delta V to help demonstrate the forces involved that cause airbags to go off. His name, Delta V, stands for ‘change’ and ‘velocity’, the combination of which can cause airbags to deploy.

Susan called on Mark Simon at A&S Animation to design and bring Delta V to life. Simon, an award-winning animation producer, has long been known for his creative animation productions and his ability to bring them in on time and on budget. His most recent productions include the theatrical shorts Timmy’s Lessons In Nature and the A Message From God shorts that were just released on video as a part of the Gina D’s Kids Club video.

“Susan and I talked about how the character should look. We thought it would be really fun to have Delta V look like he was made of parts of a car, but still have a lot of personality,” says Simon.

“Mark nailed the perfect look on his first try,” replies Stolov. The character’s turbine barrel chest, large chin made out of a speaker, different sized headlight eyes and sparkplug wire hair helps give Delta V a personality of being a braggart yet goofy.

Christene Jennings, director of programs for ACTS states, “We’re thrilled with the way the production is turning out. We expect the tape to be very educational and fun to watch.” Jennings expects the tapes to be offered to consumers who have questions regarding airbags and to be used in driver’s education and safety classes. ACTS is a non-profit group funded by the automotive industry so there will be many uses for the tapes. Previous versions of a similar tape were delivered in glove boxes of many new cars.

In order to give Delta V realistic movement, A&S Animation decided to use a state-of-the-art magnetic motion capture system to capture the movements of an actor. “While I was acting out how I wanted the character to move, it became clear pretty fast that I was going to be the one hooked up to the machine,” states Simon, known for his energetic lectures and leaping on furniture to get his point across.

Simon and Jeff Scheetz, the production effects supervisor, use the Ascension Magetic Motion Capture System for the hardware to capture the motion. Scheetz, owner of DAVE School (Digital Animation and Visual Effects) located at Universal Orlando and Simon, trainer and lecturer at the school, are using their facility for the production. The magnetic suit that Simon will be wearing consists of 11 sensors that track his every movement. Their system is one of the few in Florida and uses the same technology used in the ground-breaking Final Fantasy animated feature and the theatrical hit The Matrix.

Simon’s movements are captured and customized using the Kaydara Filmbox software. The final animation will then be rendered using Lightwave 3D. “We will be using a combination of motion capture and keyframe animation to achieve the motion Mark wants. The motion capture is great for helping with the subtle acting movements, but we can do much better grand actions by hand animating the keys,” says Scheetz. He knows what it takes, Scheetz was an effects supervisor at Foundation Imaging in Valencia, California and worked on Babylon V and Star Trek Voyager.

The animation will be complete in December of 2001. “Everyone on the project has been great to work with and the final results are going to be spectacular,” says Simon. Stolov will edit the animation into their live action segments and the general public will be more educated and safer due to the efforts of Delta V and his creative parents.

For more information:

Mark Simon
Producer
A&S Animation, Inc.
407-370-2673
msimon@cfl.rr.com
www.FunnyToons.tv

Sue Stolov
Producer/Writer
Washington Independent Productions, Inc.
202-638-3400
WashIndPro@aol.com

Christene Jennings
Director of Programs
Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety
703-243-7501
cjennings@actsinc.org
http://www.actsinc.org

Register now to post your news, events, and career information. All posting, searching and site features are FREE!

Register Now!

Post Your News

Post Your Events

Post Your Job

Post Your Resume

| | | | | | | |

Copyright © 2001-2009 techDaily.info. All Rights Reserved.
Created, Designed & Developed by DataGlyphics, Inc.

Sponsored by YourMembership.com - YourMembership.com's online community solutions create global connections between your organization and its members -- all member communities include: custom design, all features, hosting, future upgrades and customer service at one low monthly fee. And we can have you up and running in 72-hours! Take the online self-guided tour.

YourMembership.com features include: member directory, contact management system, social & professional networking tools, dues payment system, event & conference management, group/chapter homepages, career & mentoring center, extensive member profile system, donation & fundraising system, member blogs & forum, real-time data imports and exports, bulk email, messaging & e-newsletters, photo albums, media galleries & podcasts, online interactive surveys & quizzes, full e-commerce storefront, custom content management, all future upgrades, and much more -- all updatable through a secure backend site administration system. We even provide you a simple way to create your own custom site sections and content.

Contact Us Today for an online tour. The demonstration will show you all aspects of our complete online member community.